Since returning from WTM London on Wednesday, our headquarters in Interlaken has been buzzing with feedback and comments from conversations with customers, potential customers and industry leaders. We find conferences like these useful because we get a better idea of where the travel industry is headed.

How to understand your customers by creating personas

If you run a tour or activity company, you might think you know your target market. Alternatively, you might keep your marketing as broad as possible to reach far and wide.

In this article we suggest you have a go at creating personas, whether just as a useful marketing exercise or a way to add purpose to your whole marketing strategy. Here's how to get started...

1. Create personas of the people who book your tours

As HubSpot describes, personas are "fictional, generalized characters that encompass the various needs, goals, and observed behavior patterns among your real and potential customers. They help you understand your customers better".

Think about the people who tend to book your tours or activities and put yourself in their shoes. Who are they? Where do they live and work? Why are they in your destination? Why do they book your tour or activity, and what do they want to gain from it? Give them characteristics.

You might come up with several different personas after thinking about this. There might be the twentysomething year-old student travelling for the summer, the couple on a weekend break, or the parent with his kids. What is the story of each person?

2. Create a persona of your ideal customer

This is the person who loves your tours, leaves you glowing reviews on TripAdvisor, and doesn't haggle when it comes to price. Who are they? What is their story? Understand who they are and you'll be in a better position to attract more of these customers.

3. Define how you should be marketing to each persona

By creating personas for your tour or activity company, you can get to know your customers more personally and understand how you can both attract and delight them.

Inform the most effective content promotion on various channels and networks.

Guide content formatting and placement for maximum engagement and reach.

Think about what channels each persona will be active on or respond to, whether social media, print advertising, or anything in-between.

Here are some sample personas to get your thinking going...

The escapists or adventurers

We've written before about the growing trend of escaping the 9-5 by travelling to new places. 69% of global travelers - of all age groups - are planning to try something new in 2016. 17% will try solo travel for the first time, and 15% will try adventure travel for the first time.

How to market to them: Publish great content that lets the escapists among us to indulge in our wanderlust. Share blog posts of top places to visit and unique experiences to try, accompanied by great visuals that get us booking flights (and your tour or activity!)

The learners

Tourists are increasingly wanting to learn as they travel, especially young (or millennial) travellers. Do you provide informative historical or cultural tours that are in a great position to respond to this trend?

How to market to them: Emphasise the unique opportunities to gain new insights during your tours. Perhaps your customers can chat to locals on your walking tour, or learn all about the region's best cuisine from a lifelong expert. What can people learn from you that they can't elsewhere?

The super-connected travellers

There's no doubt about it: we're all becoming more connected. When it comes to travel, Asian travelers are the least likely to use offline methods to book accommodation, US, UK and Italian travelers stand out as online booking channel users, and the Chinese are most likely to make bookings via mobile apps.

How to market to them: Make sure you're using mobile-optimised booking software, such as TrekkSoft. Also it's definitely worth being active on social media plus review sites like TripAdvisor (as well as its global counterparts).

The packed-itinerary travellers

These are the travellers who make the most of every minute of their trip. To help them plan every detail, they may well be avid TripAdvisor users too. 4 in 5 TripAdvisor users will “usually” or “always” reference reviews before deciding on an attraction to visit. This is especially the case for Australian travellers (82%) and Generation X (74%).

Lucy spent three years building TrekkSoft’s content strategy and inbound marketing approach. She now helps companies to find their voice, kick-start projects, and bring in processes that actually work for them. Lucy writes and shares her solo adventures on lucyfuggle.com.

We're here to support you all the way

TrekkSoft was founded to address the needs of our local tour and activity industry in Interlaken, Switzerland. We understand the industry and you can rely on our team to onboard your business, introduce you to digital best practice, and guide you to success from the start.